Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, March 19, 1994 TAG: 9403190055
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 12 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Mike Mayo
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
The new version of "Sweet Bird of Youth" had its first incarnation as a 1989 made-for-TV movie. A brief, dream-like love scene has been added for home video, but it does little for this decidedly mixed bag.
According to the press material, screenwriter Gavin Lambert ("Inside Daisy Clover") based this version on Tennessee Williams' own "rethinking of the material." It's different from the play and from the 1962 Paul Newman-Geraldine Page film. This time out, Mark Harmon and Elizabeth Taylor take on the roles of Chance, the hustling beach boy, and Alexandra Delago, the once and future screen legend.
Fueled by ambition and hashish, they breeze into Chance's Gulfcoast hometown, and find themselves in the middle of Boss Finlay's (Rip Torn) crusade to maintain segregation. (The setting is a vague, generic 1950s with a vague, generic pop soundtrack and vague, generic Southern accents.) The rest of the plot has to do with the dark secret in young Heavenly Finlay's (Cheryl Paris) past, and considerable soul-searching for all concerned.
Director Nicholas Roeg lets the action drag along at an unusually slow and predictable pace. While it's always fun to listen to Liz handling Williams' overripe dialogue, this is far from her best work. She was in one of her plumper phases when the film was made, a long way from her svelte days as Maggie the Cat.
The central problem, though, is that this story remains a play. The stage was Williams' medium and his strengths there - vivid, emotional characters; charged personal conflicts; long, carefully constructed scenes - don't necessarily lend themselves to the screen. Some of the "big" moments here are misfires, and the ending, while faithful to the source, is lacking in clarity and logic.
Still, even when Williams and Roeg aren't at their best, they're more interesting than a lot of people who are making movies these days. For fans, this "Sweet Bird" earns a qualified recommendation.
"The Paint Job" is such an unusual film that it completely flummoxed the studio's advertising department. According to the box copy, it's a "stark psychological thriller" with "the fury building to a chilling climax." Nothing could be further from the truth.
Writer-director Michael Taav's story is an off-beat comedy about serial murder and adultery. Whatever the cast lacks in star power, it makes up for with professionalism. These are some of the best character actors in the business and they seem to have been perfectly in tune with their material.
The setting (again) is a generic, early-'60s South. (The film was made in Wisconsin, but let's not be picky.) Will (Robert Pastorelli) runs a house painting business. To judge by appearances, he's an average middle-class guy with a loving wife, Margaret (Bebe Neuwirth), and a small tract house in the 'burbs. Wesley (Will Patton) is a painter who works for him. Everything would be fine . . . except Wesley and Margaret have fallen in love with each other, and Will spends his evenings and weekends murdering old alcoholics.
All right, that synopsis does not sound like a knee-slapping laughfest. But, for comparative purposes, imagine what novelist Thomas Berger might do with those characters in that situation. Taav takes the same deadpan approach. The locations have a realistic, used-up look, and the actors - including Casey Siemaszko and Mark Boone Jr. as a chorus in coveralls - make understatement their rule. Almost nothing in this one is overt. The action is so restrained and stylized that most videophiles will either love or loathe "The Paint Job"; there's no middle ground.
"Mr. Wonderful" is a fine little romantic comedy that failed to find a large audience in its all-too-brief theatrical release last year. It should do better when it hits video stores next Wednesday.
The story revolves around Gus (Matt Dillon), an electrical worker who's trying to find a new husband for his ex-wife Lee (Annabella Sciorra), before he makes a commitment to his girlfriend Rita (Mary-Louise Parker). Not surprisingly, as soon as he begins to succeed, he finds himself falling for Lee again. Writers Amy Schor and Vicki Polon have created three completely likeable characters and director Anthony Minghella brings the same light touch to the story that made his "Truly, Madly, Deeply" so enjoyable.
Comedies that value characters over visual effects and slam- bang plots lose nothing in the transition to cassette. In fact, they tend to be more enjoyable on video than they are on the theater screen. "Mr. Wonderful" is a perfect example. Next week: "M Butterfly"
New release this week: What's Love Got To Do With It: ** 1/2
Starring Angela Bassett, Lawrence Fishburn. Directed by Brian Gibson. Touchstone. 114 min. Rated R for sexual content, strong language, extremely strong domestic violence.
If this story of Tina Turner's survival through a horrendous marriage and all the excesses of rock `n roll is more than a little uncritical of its subject, then that's an understandable flaw. After all, the script is based on her autobiography. Angela Bassett and Lawrence Fishburne, as her abusive husband Ike, deserve their Oscar nominations.
THE ESSENTIALS:
Sweet Bird of Youth ** 1/2 Triboro. 95 min. Rated R for brief nudity, sexual content, subject matter.
The Paint Job *** Columbia TriStar. 90 min. Rated R for subject matter, strong language, some comic violence.
Mr. Wonderful *** Warner. 99 min. Rated PG-13 for subject matter, strong language.
by CNB